


Theory of Unnaturality

by kaara



Category: Big Bang (Band)
Genre: M/M, Some Kind of Future AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 23:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11092074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaara/pseuds/kaara
Summary: In the year too far into the future, the world is mapped in genetics. You are the by-product of statistics and calculated risks.





	Theory of Unnaturality

**Author's Note:**

> a fic from AGES ago. about six or seven years?? actually putting this here because i'm archiving some of my old work and this was written for the lj community gdheartri's fanmix challenge. i got coldplay's x&y as the prompt. it's a great song that i had shamelessly mutilated hahahaa. but yes. vague future au abounds.

“I’m a boy.” Seungri points at his wrist, at tiny words and numbers tattooed onto smooth skin, right over the logo of the corporation that owns him. His fingertip grazes the XY mark, between his birth date and civilian ID. When he looks up, he doesn’t understand the smile on Jiyong’s face. “You can’t fall in love with me. It’s impossible.”  
  
“Says who?”  
  
Seungri wants to say ‘ _the world_ ’ but Jiyong is already looking away, fingers tapping ghost tunes onto scratchy concrete. They watch the artificial sun treks through watercolour-blue sky, legs dangling over the edge and Seungri finds halfway into his lunch break that Jiyong’s lips are warmer than all the sunshine put together.  
  
It’s the first time he learns to doubt himself.

 

★

 

In the year too far into the future, the world is mapped in genetics.   
  
You live the way you are encoded from birth, pre-programmed to best suit the demands and needs of the corporations that own you from embryonic stage onwards. Education, career, partner, life span – these are not the choices you make. They are made for you.  
  
You are the by-product of statistics and calculated risks.

 

★

 

Seungri is designed for dancing, he knows that. Dancing and  _maybe_ , if he’s lucky (luck is made of point zero zero zero percent), singing. They say the geneticist in charge of his development made a tiny mistake with his codes and now his voice can’t really reach the higher notes, doesn’t really blend as well in a harmony.  
  
_You need to try harder_ , they tell him and they shake their heads at the holographic image of his genetic report.  _You’ll be better but never good enough. What a mess._  
  
They list him as  **imperfect**  into their gigantic database, a different compartment from the  **perfect** s.  
  
Seungri bows and says his thanks with a smile on his face.

 

★

 

_“I’m Jiyong.” Jiyong grabs Seungri’s hand and pulls him into a hug. He doesn’t seem to notice when Seungri flinches upon contact. Seungri catches a glimpse of the YG Corporation logo on the inside of Jiyong’s arm and Youngbae, Seunghyun and Daesung grin at him from the sideline. He lingers for a second, for two because he likes the way their eyes light up but there are hands over his cheek and he turns until all he can see is Jiyong everywhere. “You call me hyung.”_  
  
“Okay…hyung.”  
  
All he’ll ever see is Jiyong.

 

★

 

Jiyong is perfect.   
  
_He’s a genius. You should’ve seen his reports, man! That kind of genetic code is rare and—_  
  
“I want to see stars.” Jiyong’s fingers skitter close to Seungri’s, not quite touching and his face is upturned toward the canvas of midnight sky grid-lined with blips. “I’ll go all the way up there.” Jiyong turns to Seungri, smiling that smile Seungri still doesn’t understand. “And I’ll bring you along. Just the two of us. And the stars.”  
  
_He’s designed for great things, you know. The prodigal son of our generation—”_  
  
“...Hyung. Stars died out centuries ago.”  
  
Seungri doesn’t look at Jiyong until the alarm resounds in the distance, pretends he doesn’t see the smile crumble into fairy dust and dim light. Jiyong disappears with a brush of fingers over his cheeks, without a goodbye and he spends the night staring at the sky, wondering what it feels like to live in a valley of stars.

 

★

 

_THANK YOU FOR USING [SEOULMATE] SERVICE_

_we offer 100 &% compatibility with the latest technology_

  
_**Name:**  Lee Seungri._  
_**CivID:**  V1212-LEE. _  
_**Corporation:**  YG Entertainment. _  
_**Current Status:**  Single. _  
_**SEOULMATE:**  Choi Eun Min (CivID: H0827-CHOI)._  
  
_Hello, **Lee Seungri**. You have ( SEVEN ) pending invitations from your SEOULMATE. The invitations will expire in ( ONE ) month. Would you like to accept and establish contact?_

 

★

 

“I think you’re sick. You should get yourself checked at the Centre.”  
  
Jiyong grabs the frame of the chair, rolls Seungri closer until they are inches apart. His skinny legs find their way around Seungri’s waist and his voice is a whisper when he recites what sounds like a line of an unfinished song, “Love is not a sickness, Seungri.”  
  
Seungri doesn’t tell Jiyong that maybe he feels a little sick himself and he allows Jiyong to pull him onto the bed, doesn’t resist when Jiyong coaxes his lips open with a smile, a promise of—   
  
— _of what?_

 

★

 

“Machines don’t lie.” His classmate squints at him between globes of blue and red, the genetic structure of a silicone-based life form for their class project. It doesn’t need a code for emotions, they’ve decided – less complex, perfect in its stability. “On the contrary. Human lie all the time.”   
  
He nods once, so solemn and sure that Seungri is very nearly convinced.   
  
“Always trust the machines.”   
  
If only machines smile the way Jiyong does.

 

★

 

_"I am Imperfect.”_  
  
“You’re Seungri.”  
  
“Listen to me, hyung—”  
  
“I heard you the first time. So what?”  
  
Seungri picks at his tattoo until the skin feels raw, threatens to burst and spill precious red all over the blue tiles of his bathroom. The water is scalding hot but it doesn’t burn, not much. He digs his fingernails along the XY indentations and then. It hurts, it  _hurts_.   
  
_So what?_

 

★

 

Her hair is long and dark, falls in waves over her shoulder and she greets him with a polite smile painted in scarlet glitters, a summer dress the colour of faraway oceans. There is a small tag around her wrist that announces her name and he waits until she stops right beside him to introduce himself, showing her his own tag. Seungri decides that he likes the way she looks at him from underneath soot-black lashes, the gentle curve of her hip and how her voice doesn’t cut through his defenses like Jiyong’s.   
  
He surprises himself with the last thought but when she asks him if he’s okay, he tells her he’s nervous and leads her inside the small café. She confesses that she feels the same ( _I’ve been waiting for today for so long; don’t you?_ ) and they laugh like clockwork as service bots circle around their table.   
  
He asks her if she likes dancing.

 

★

 

“What are you doing?”  
  
“I’m trying to figure out what shape would you be if you’re a silicone-based life form.”  
  
“Huh.” Jiyong sits cross-legged next to Seungri, peers at the sketch in front of them for a few seconds before he says, “How about heart-shaped?”  
  
Seungri colours Jiyong’s tentacles a vibrant shade of pink. “You do realise that the heart looks gruesome and disgusting, right?”  
  
“Hey.” Jiyong leans heavily against him and Seungri resists the urge to push Jiyong away. “I like the heart. It tells me to do things my genes disagree with.”  
  
“Hyung, don’t—”  
  
“What does  _your_  heart tell you to do, Seungri?” 

 

★

 

“That I should run as far away as I can from you."

 

★

 

“Did you enjoy your date?”  
  
Seungri reads a question and an accusation rolled up in one and he doesn’t look up from his homework. Calculations in light-years and particles calculus make his head swim and he’d rather be in the dancing studio right now with music loud enough to deafen. Not there, not with Jiyong and too much silences.  
  
“Was she pretty?”  
  
_She has fair skin and I like her hair, her lips, her hands._  
  
“What did you talk about?”  
  
_She does ballet and sings for the Council Choir. She thinks I’d look good in pink, isn’t that funny?_  
  
His room isn’t that spacious and it takes Jiyong just three strides to reach his table, to sit all over the spread of infinite numbers because everything else is insignificant compared to Jiyong. Jiyong, who looks tired and seconds away from admitting defeat in a war Seungri doesn’t even know existed.   
  
“Aren’t you going to say anything?”  
  
Seungri sighs and buries his face into the folds of Jiyong’s t-shirt. “She doesn’t make me feel sick.”  
  
_Not the way you do, hyung._

 

★

 

"The heart lies too, you know."


End file.
